BILLY JENKINS WITH THE VOICE OF GOD COLLECTIVE - Scratches Of Spain​VOTP Records VOTP VOVD 120Tim Matthewman - Fat Electric Bass Guitar; Simon Edwards - Skinny Acoustic Bass Guitar; Jo Westcott - Proper Cello; Steve Argüelles - Experienced Hand Drums, Midget Drumkit; Dave Cook - Heavy Metal Guitar; Billy Jenkins - Spazz Guitar, Violin, Composition; Django Bates - Doodle Keyboards; Roy Dodds - Excited Percussion, Spastic Drumkit; Dawson - Experienced Hand Drums; Iain Ballamy - Bigtime Saxophone; Dai Pritchard - Spazz Saxophone, Clarinet; Steve Buckley - Straight Saxophone; Dave Jago - Grown Up Trombone; Skid Solo - Spazz Trumpet; Chris Batchelor - Straight Trumpet; John Eacott - Trad Trumpet; Jimmy Haycraft - Golden Vibraphone; Ashley Slater - Juvenile Bass Trombone.This re-release of this gloriously anarchic belch in the face of Thatcherism seems, after years of muddled austerity, to be a perfectly timed comment on contemporary UK politics. Jenkins, developed his musical prowess in the UK punk scene, and has always taken a Situationist approach to music making, always with an intelligent wit in his composition. He has taken an un-PC playground taunt for disability and turned it into a statement of musical intent. Any false start, misplayed note or, in the case of Skid Solo, feeble playing of instruments, is not only kept in but delighted in. This repurposing of the term ‘spazz’ as a challenge to ‘professional’ playing reminds me of Jenkins contemporary on the rock circuit, Ian Dury, who also used the term spastic as a political statement as much as a personal term of entitlement. The celebration of misfit playing extends to an anti-business, anti-packaging, anti-structure ethos that provides a sharp critique of music as a business rather than a way of life.

Records with silly puns, such as ‘In the Nude’ or ‘Round Midnight Cowboy’ or ‘Scratches of Spain’ deliberately pull the rug out from beneath the feet of jazz legends. In the case of this record, the cover art is a gleeful misappropriation of the classic Miles album, hinting that this is the Spain of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza rather than the dreamy, sun-blessed idyll of Rodriguez that Miles might have been channelling. If you visit the desert regions around Almeria, there are lots of what seem to be abandoned film-sets and plenty of tour guides telling you that this was where ‘spaghetti westerns’ were filmed – if you press them on this (spaghetti comes from Italy…as do those classic films), they might relent and suggest that this was the location of a second generation of films. I am sure Jenkins would rub his hands gleefully as this example of capitalism turning a dishonest buck, and that the musical quotes from these films are in the pieces to poke fun at the very idea of cowboys in Spain. Much of the music here calls to mind the works of other mavericks, with the klezmer sounds that John Zorn has recently taken to his heart, and the appearance of many of members of Loose Tubes. What is surprising is the way in which so many cliché-ridden tunes (just listen to the start of ‘Benidorm Motorway Services’) melt into warm, evocative and cleverly constructed pieces, as the spazz solos evolve into some of the most creative ensemble playing that you’ll hear. What Jenkins demonstrates here (as he does on anything he has recorded) is a talent to turn anarchy into coherence, but to do this in such a way that you are continually diverted by the anarchic twitches which, with a sleight-of-hand deftness, can make you miss the beauty in this truly original, truly great record.

Reviewed by Chris Baber

ECM celebrates 50 years of music production with the Touchstones series of re-issues